


Kyber Blue Eyes

by SerStolas



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Valdemar Series Fusion, Companions (Valdemar), Eventual Romance, F/M, Heralds (Valdemar), Kingdom of Valdemar (Valdemar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 07:19:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18936091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerStolas/pseuds/SerStolas
Summary: A Star Wars: Rogue One/Heralds of Valdemar world fusion fic.The last thing Jyn Erso ever expected when she was brought to Rethwellan by her hated guardian under the threat of an arranged marriage was for a chance at freedom and escape to come in the form of a white horse with sapphire blue eyes.  Now she finds herself on new adventures with her Companion, Kyber, and fellow Herald Trainee Bodhi Rook, and Herald Cassian Andor, and their Companions.Not Beta Read, all mistakes are mine.





	Kyber Blue Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own the World of Valdemar, which is written by Mercedes Lackey, or Star Wars.
> 
> This fic started as a weird mashup after Re-reading Valdemar books and watching Rogue One. There may or may not be more chapters, it depends on how kind my muse, work, and grad school is. 
> 
> I wrote this instead of doing homework...

Jyn escaped to the stables of the inn where her guardian, Krennic, had rented rooms as soon as she could. Just a year past twenty, she should be able to make at least some decisions regarding her future on her own. If she'd been common born, and in any other country other than Jkatha, she might have been. Much to her dismay, though, she'd been born to one of the many minor noble families in Jkatha, to Lord Galen Erso and his wife Lyra Erso. Were her parents still among the living, they would have given her a choice. Given her mother's death with she was eight, and her father's extremely mysterious disappearance, though, her future had been thrown to the wind.

She'd been under the guardianship of her father's friend, Saw Guerrea, until she'd been 16. In her time with him, Saw had shared his own theories on who he suspected guilty for her mother's death and father's disappearance, but then the dirty politics of the Fifty Families had taken Saw from her as well, and still an unmarried noblewoman, she'd been placed under the guardianship of Orson Krennic.

She hated the man, and silently, she shared Saw's suspicions that Krennic, or his masters, had been responsible for the deaths of her parents, and later on, Saw. The laws and rules surrounding noblewomen left her with little recourse, though.

Now Krennic had dragged her to Rethwellan, determined to sell her off into a marriage that would benefit him, rather than the Ersos. The past week had been spent in negotiations on the marriage contract to some man twenty years her elder that looked at her so lecherously she debated how long it would be until she could use some of the more covert skills Saw had taught her to rid herself of said husband.

Right now Krennic would be reviewing reports from his unknown masters and probably gloating over the fact that he would soon close the contract. He knew where she would disappear to, to the stables since horsemanship had been one of her few escapes since he'd become her guardian, but he also thought her too stupid to ponder anything but obedience.

If she were to just vanish on a regular horse, his hunters would track her within a few days, they'd managed before when she'd run in the past. Krennic had at least one wizard on his payroll who would be able to track her. The nobility of Rethwellan wouldn't care about the fate of one lone Jkantha noblewoman to interfere. So right now, the best plan seemed to either wait and see if a faster mode of escape presented itself, or bide her time until she was marriage and then make her 'husband's' death look like an accident.

Jyn swore quietly under her breath as she groomed one of their horses, inhaling the scent of clean hay and horse, letting it wash over her and calm her, just a little. As she gleaned the last specks of debris from the horse's mane, a soft ringing noise caught her attention. She frowned faintly, her eyes flickering in that direction.

A silvery white stallion stood in a box two horses down from her own, fair nose stuck out over the edge of the loose box. The lamplight in the stable gleaned off his fine coat, and Jyn could see from here that this stallion was built for stamina and speed, bright blue eyes peering up at Jyn with an intelligence she did suspected came only from Shin'a'in steed. The stallion shifted on his hooves and Jyn heard that odd, bell like sound again.

Curiosity drew Jyn across the distance to the stallion, a faint frown still marring her brow as she found herself touching the stallion's white mane, finding it the softest and silkiest she'd ever felt among horses. Almost against her will, she picked up the horse brush and began combing the stallion's mane. She still had a few hours before Krennic would expect her back in their rooms for dinner, and as a calm settled over her, she found no reason not to tend this strange stallion.

The motions lulled her further into calm, a calm not broken when she heard a voice sound in her head, clear and sweet.

~~"Do you still seek an escape?~~ the voice asked.

Jyn felt some part of her mind suspicious of this voice suddenly speaking in her head, but the unnatural calm kept her from reacting with any sort of violence or from stepping back. "If I could find a viable escape from Krennic, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

~~"Then mount, and we will be on our way"~~ the voice told her calmly.

Years of training from Saw were perhaps the only thing that kept her from immediately complying, as her muscles freezed up and she stared at the horse, for now she was certain the voice was coming from the horse. She was too old to be developing any kind of magical Gift, wasn't she? 

"Who are you?" she hissed in a low tone.

Those blue eyes calculated as they watched her, then. ~~"My name is Kyber. I am a Companion from Valdemar. A spirithorse the Shin'a'in might call me, and I've Chosen you."~~

Even in Jkatha, Jyn had heard tales of Valdemar, it's Companions, and its Heralds. Heralds were said to be great messengers and leaders in Valdemar, serving the good of the country, and the Companions their otherworldly bonded mounts. She'd read about them, but Jyn had never thought she would encounter one, though supposedly the Valdemar Ambassador to Jkatha was a Herald. 

She eyed this horse, correction, this Companion, Kyber, warily. "Why me?" she asked.

~~"Because you possess gifts that Valdemar can use,"~~ Kyber replied with such deep belief Jyn knew that the Companion believed he was telling the complete truth. ~~"And because you deserve a fate better than what Krennic has planned for you.~~

"He's always been able to find me before," Jyn argued.

Kyber snorted. ~~"I am a Companion, Jyn, far more than a horse, and far faster than any horse his hunters could find. By the time they try and catch up, we will be in Valdemar, and you will be beyond their reach."~~

This could all be some elaborate trick, she thought, something intent on taking her to some worse fate than Krennic had planned. And yet..all the tales spoke of the goodness and wonder of Companions and their Heralds. 

And her instinct told her to trust this Companion.

But if she went upstairs to pack anything, Krennic would know something was going on, and she would need those free hours to escape on Kyber.

Jyn took a deep, calming breath, and made her decision. "Let's go," she told the Companion.

Kyber obligingly stepped out of the loose box for Jyn to mount. She noted that while there was a saddle and stirrups, and Kyber wore an odd, bit-less bridle. Given the rumored intelligence of Companions, Jyn supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Jyn tossed herself into the saddle, finding it seemed to fit her perfectly, another oddity, but she was about to flee on a talking horse so she supposed she shouldn't question it too much.

~~"Companion, not horse,"~~ Kyber told her primly.

Jyn found herself grinning at Kyber's tone even as the Companion took of with a bolt out of the stables. They attracted a few odd stares as the Companion quickly took them to the main road and out of town, but no one stopped them, not wanting to get involved in oddities themselves.

She still wasn't entirely sure she trusted all of this, but right now almost anything was better than waiting for another method of escape. What she would do after they arrived in Valdemar, Jyn decided for once she would worry about later.

Whatever happened, the ache of loneliness she'd felt since her parents had died seemed to be easing, and, though she couldn't explain why, the soothing presence of Kyber in her mind seemed to be taking its place.

********************************************

Herald Trainee Bodhi Rook sighed as he trudged across the Herald Collegium grounds towards the dormitories. He'd just spent the past hour or so getting the stuffing beat out of him by Herald Baze, the Weapon's Master. Baze told him he was doing decently enough, particularly given how much older he'd been than normal trainees, but he never showed any mercy on Bodhi, telling Bodhi bandits wouldn't either. 

Most people were chosen between the ages of 13 and 18, but Bodhi, already in his 20s and a caravan guard for his family's caravan, had been chosen the prior year when the Rooks caravan had arrived with a shipment to the Valdemar capital of Haven. It had been his first trip to Haven himself, and none of the Rooks had expected a blue eyed, white Companion to come trotting up as they began unloading the wagons, to promptly Choose Bodhi and carry him up to the Collegium. His parents were certainly proud, having a Herald in the family was considered high honor on Valdemar and they gained a certain stipend as a result from the Crown, but they'd had to scramble to find someone to take his place in the caravan.

His companion, Rogue, had gotten a certain amount of perverse enjoyment from it all, and Bodhi still didn't understand her humor half the time, but he loved her all the same.

Bodhi was so fixed on his path towards the dormitory, that he almost didn't notice until it was too late the Companion stallion that put himself directly in his path. He managed to stop just before running directly into the Companion, and frowned. He recognized the stallion immediately.

The Queen's Own's Companion had been absent from Haven for the past several weeks, off on a quest to find his new Herald, and the new Queen's Own Herald since the last Queen's own had died suddenly of illness some months before. The Collegium had been in a bit of an uproar since, the Council and the Heralds hoping the Queen's Own's Companion would Choose soon. Queen Leia had an extremely good head on her shoulders, but the kingdom needed a Queen's Own.

"Kyber?" Bodhi asked, eyes wide. Then he took in the slip of a woman on Kyber's back. She looked travel worn but proud, and Bodhi guessed from her features and her dress, so unlike fashions he'd seen in Valdemar, that Kyber had gone a long way to find her.

"That's what he tells me his name is," the woman told Bodhi. "I tried to slipped off after we crossed the border but he hunted me down and told me I was needed in Haven." She looked faintly displeased. "Never had much control over my own fate, but I suppose here is better than what Krennic had planned for me."

Bodhi judged her to be just a few years younger than he, and based on her carriage and words, he guessed she'd been a noblewoman, somewhere, and seemed resigned to whatever fate Kyber had brought her to, and considered it better than what she'd left behind.

Why did Kyber have to bring this to -him-, Bodhi thought sourly. Wouldn't the Lord Marshal's Herald Cassian be a better choice, or Baze maybe?

~~"Because you are near her age, Chosen"~~ Rogue sounded in Bodhi's head. ~~"And you've been Outkingdom, so might help her settle better than the others, at least for now."~~

He sighed at his Companion's words. "Yes, that's Kyber. He's the Companion to the Queen's Own, and has evidently decided you'll be the next Queen's Own to Queen Leia." 

The woman frowned as she dismounted, and Bodhi started, noting how much shorter she looked on the ground...right around Queen Leia's height, and with the attitude he was sensing, well, she just might have the gumption it would take to rein in Queen Leia when needed. "Queen's Own?"

"The Queen's Own Herald," Bodhi told her. "Personal advisor to the Queen, and usually her closest confidant. The existance of the Monarch's Own Herald is something that helps balance the Monarch out. I'm Bodhi, by the way."

"Jyn," the woman replied absently, frowning as she did. "So, Kyber here brought me all the way from Jkatha, by way of Rethwellan, and saved me from an arrange marriage to be the Queen's Own, when I know only about tales of Valdemar, Heralds, Companions, and the like?"

"Well, he must have had a reason, something about your character that makes you good for the position," Bodhi shrugged. "And they won't just throw you into the position. Every Herald who comes to the Collegium gets training. And its nice, really, having a Companion. Because we Heralds, or in my case Herald Trainee, are bonded to them, they see our thoughts and we see theirs and we can trust them, completely."

Jyn thought of Kyber's steadfast presence, advise, and even protection over the past few weeks that they'd been traveling to Valdemar, to this Haven. It all still seemed like something out of a tale to her, and she still felt wary of it all.

But she wanted it to be true, she really did.

She looked at the hand Bodhi had now outstretched to her. Slowly, she placed her palm in hers.

"Come on, I'll take you to the Dean," Bodhi told her. "Kyber will head back to the Companion stables, he'll be there with my Companion, Rogue, but you'll still feel him in your head."

"Still better than what Krennic planned," Jyn said, deciding, for now, to trust this stranger, as she'd trusted Kyber weeks back. Even her time on the road during her escape had been better than her years with Krennic. As determined as Kyber seemed to lead her to a particular fate, and as much as she was wary of it, right now, she supposed she had nothing else to lose.

~~"You'll like it here,"~~ Kyber's warm voice promised in her mind.

**Author's Note:**

> I know the name of the Kings Own Companion listed here isn't one of the traditional canonical Herald's Own Companion names. This is a fusion/au so I took some liberties.


End file.
